Video of fleeing ferry captain angers Koreans

Apr. 28, 2014
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A handout image released Monday by the South Korean coast guard, taken from cellphone video footage by a coast guard officer, shows Lee Joon-seok, the captain of the Sewol, fleeing from the sinking ferry April 16. / South Korea coast guard, European Pressphoto Agency

by John Bacon, USA TODAY

by John Bacon, USA TODAY

The captain of the South Korean ferry that sank off the coast of a tourist island can be seen slipping away while hundreds of passengers remain on the doomed ship, a video clip released Monday by Korea's coast guard reveals.

The clip from April 16 shows coast guard officers throwing a rope to the steering house and Captain Lee Joon-seok, in a long-sleeved, black shirt, jumping off the listing ferry. The clip was taken shortly before the Sewol became completely submerged in the Yellow Sea - with hundreds of passengers trapped below the deck.

The clip, along with others released from that day, has reignited outrage at the captain and crew in South Korea. The Korea Times coverage of the video clip is headlined "Coward."

"As he reached the guardrail of the ship, he cautiously stepped into the rescue boat, holding onto every part of the ship he could grab so that he did not fall into the water," the Times reports. "Next to Lee were 14 lifeboats, which he never bothered to release."

The Korea JoongAng Daily notes that the videos show an empty deck. The passengers apparently followed orders and remained below.

"The video is meant to calm public anger about a rescue operation that only saved 174 of the 476 people on board," the Daily reports. "But it's likely to have the reverse effect as it shows the rescuers making no attempt to get inside the ship, where passengers - mostly 11th graders on a school trip - awaited their doom."

A 15-minute-long recording from the family of a dead Danwon High School student begins at 8:52 a.m. on that fateful April 16. Students are beginning to looking for life jackets as the boat lists. At 9:06 a.m., an announcement was made, "Attention, please, the students and teachers of Danwon High School. Do not move from where you are and wait."

The students were confused. "Ah, they need to tell us what is going on," said one student.

All 15 crewmembers involved in navigating the ferry have been taken into custody while prosecutors and a government task force try to determine exactly what happened. Lee has said he initially withheld an evacuation order because rescuers were slow in arriving, and he feared for passengers' safety in the cold, swift water.

The video clips were released on a day when storms, high winds and rough surf slowed the grim search for bodies. Divers have searched about 35 of 111 compartments on the ship, the Yonhap News Service reported, citing South Korea coast guard officials. Rescue workers had considered using small explosives to gain access to some rooms, but the plan drew negative reviews from some families of the missing passengers.

More than 100 people remain listed as missing since the 6,825-ton ship Sewol capsized with more than 470 people aboard. The confirmed death toll remained at 188. Authorities say 174 people, including most of the crew, were rescued the day of the accident, but no one has been found alive since.

On Sunday, South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won resigned amid public outrage over the government's response to the disaster.

"On behalf of the government, I want to apologize for a series of problems from preventive steps to the government's initial response and follow-up measures," he said in a Seoul news conference, as translated by The Korea Herald. "Witnessing the sorrows of those who lost their loved ones and sadness and anger of the people, I felt the right thing for me to do was to take all responsibility as the prime minister."

An investigation that began after the Sewol capsized has uncovered irregularities in management of the ferry's operator, Chung said. He said rampant "corruption and malpractices" in Korean society contributed to the disaster and urged that those issues be addressed.

President Park Geun-hye's office said she would wait until the ferry recovery effort has been fully resolved before formally accepting Chung's resignation.